Friday, July 11, 2014

What are your thoughts on Law School?

It seems that every attorney I speak with recently has had the same message to tell me. "Don't go to law school". Let me provide some background on this statement. I work for an attorney in a firm with 8 attorneys and about 20 support staff. The firm itself is very well established and has done a good job at taking in a lot of cases and turning them over quickly. The clients are generally happy and its a very steady job.

However some of the attorneys in the firm seem to have the same opinion. They constantly tell my friends not to go to law school. Now this firm is pretty laid back in comparison to other firms where you have to bill hours and maybe that's where their jaded perspective comes from. In addition to billing a required amount of hours, many firms in various practice areas are forced to engage in much more aggressive marketing than the other major professional services. This includes building expansive websites and expensive video production such as this personal injury attorney commercial. It's interesting to me though that I hear it from absolutely everyone. I can't help but think maybe they watched too many television shows or movies showing glorious lawyers giving amazing speeches and saving the world with their trials. Maybe they had that type of hope at one point, but now it's lost. I'm not sure. 

What are your thoughts on being an attorney? Would you tell your friends to go to law school?
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